Although anger has its use as a mobilizing emotion that aids us in survival, too often it becomes a "reprehensible temporary madness" (Saint Basil) that afflicts us, controls us, and hurts those that we care about.

Share your experiences with anger, whether episodic or dispositional. Discuss what provokes you to anger and what helps you to stay on track.

If someone in your life has anger issues and you're looking for some insight, please feel free to post here as well.

Stay Zen.

While angry language is allowed, abusing your fellow redditors is not. Abusive comments will be removed.

Appropriate link posts are welcome, but memes and rage comics will be removed.

It doesn't matter what plan I make or how I resolve to do better next time, whether it's some new mindset or some reminder object, my rage cannot be helped and here is why.

First of all, once anger has set in, all rational thoughts are gone. I now want to be mad. Any reminder of past thinking seems silly because this is currently justified in my mind.

Second, I'm in fight or flight mode. Tiny annoyances and frustrations for some reason trigger adrenaline and stress responses in me. My stress level is always high and I am in a state of hyper-vigilance daily, so going into "oh shit a Tiger!" mode happens as easily as being cut off in traffic or fumbling with autocorrect.

For these reasons I do not believe any counseling or meditation or anger management will ever help without some kind of chemical change.

Yes, I believe I need some sort is medication to drop me out of this super stress survival mode so that it doesn't keep engaging into uncontrolled rampages. However I don't know what such a thing would be. I have read that SSRIs are only fighting the symptom of the stress problem, low serotonin, but not curbing the stress glands and hormones themselves.

Anyone know more or have similar experiences? Note, I am never violent towards people, but I am extremely verbally abusive, and occasionally violent towards objects and walls.

I hear you about fight or flight mode, man. I just found out about this subreddit and I can relate to a lot of people here.

medication has always made me wary because I've have a brother go nuts on anti psychotic medication (bi polar) and I have worse anger than him. Do you happen to know your absolute triggers? What sets you off no matter what?

It tends to build up, sometimes I am just in one of those moods and every pothole, rattle, squeak, anything, adds to the annoyance level. Other times people will do something rude or selfish at my expense and the more I think about it the more my anger loop builds, like a particle accelerator of angry thoughts.

God damn that feel, I know it well. Hang in there man. It's really tough but sometimes if I constantly repeat to myself breathe breathe that helps. Other times not so much but anything is better than nothing.

Just wanted to say that the way you just described your anger is exactly how I get, and I don't know what to do about it. Now, I don't get angry as fast as you seem to, but once I do, that's it. I don't care who you are or what you are saying. I just want to be mad.

I felt the same so many times. Usually from a bad customer experience, or being nearly run over in traffic. I would yell, break things, eat junk, and drink booze. Not a healthy pattern. So I started to hit the weights instead of the walls. It only takes a couple sets of reps, and I feel the anger subside. I also made a goal this year to be sober and adopt a Keto diet. My anger levels seem to not escalate as readily as before.
And get away from people. Some solitude does wonders.

I noticed that three things make a huge difference similar to what you said. Avoiding ALL caffeine, eating ZERO sugar and only complex carbs, and getting more sleep. After a couple days of that I literally felt high. But it's a hard habit to keep.

Hey, at least you've tried changing your habits and noted the effects. That's always a step in the right direction. I wouldn't say that I'm anger free because of diet, but I've broken my own pattern of getting angry and then carbing out. And with that, reduced the frequency and duration of anger episodes that would've resulted in compensating with carbs.

Sometimes I'll have a good day and it's like my brain still wants to get mad so it keeps getting obsessive with various tasks like it's trying to get me to fuck something up so I get mad. It's like my brain, needs to explode and is seeking an excuse even during days with nice moods.

Sounds kind of similar to anxiety. My doc tells me there aren't any good medications for anxiety and says Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the only effective solution, but I know some people with anxiety actually do find medication helpful. Maybe an anti-anxiety med would be helpful. Might want to talk to a doctor about it.